I'm in Pfizer's COVID vaccine trial, ask me anything.

[AnarchicArctic]

Cordyceps is absolutely wild

[boarder2k7]

from my understanding, (and correct me if im wrong) the vaccine does not prevent you from getting and spreading the virus; only limits how "sick" you get from it. Is this true?

I'm not sure if we know this answer completely yet. I looked around (briefly) though, and came up with this article that was interesting, but several weeks old at this point. With how fast things have been changing it may be pretty outdated.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/h...cine-mask.html

From that it seems like they still aren't completely sure how much is prevented past 90+% of illness.


Also TIL that the nose has essentially a separate immune system.

[Diomedes]

Yes and no. Vaccines are not on/off switches. They allow you to fight off an infection without getting sick. In many cases, this means there isn’t enough virus to spread. In other cases, there is, but you don’t get sick from it because it’s a less severe infection than it would otherwise have been (less virus, beaten faster).

The big idea is that a vaccine turns down the temperature on whatever “would have happened” if you’re exposed. Instead of getting really sick, you get a little sick. Instead of getting a little sick, you don’t get sick at all. Same for being able to spread the virus - the point is to shift the whole distribution of outcomes towards less spread.

And this is why this has to be a team effort. It only works if everyone is ratcheting the intensity down. If a big chunk of the population is getting just as sick and spreading just as much, we’re all out of luck.

[Tarsun2]

from my understanding, (and correct me if im wrong) the vaccine does not prevent you from getting and spreading the virus; only limits how "sick" you get from it. Is this true?

[Five Oh]

The way different states are rolling it out is kinda wild. I would assume you should do health care workers, then anyone that is elderly/has big comorbidity risks. I'm in Michigan and they are rolling it out to health care workers, then fire, law enforcement, and EMS. I'm actually slated to get it next week, but I would rather they give it to the elderly and those most likely to die before me.

[Axel]

I suppose the logic is that without first having a staffed hospital to receive the patients, EMS can't do much good. Anecdotally, I hear that patients in little Franklin County are overwhelming the available medical staff so keeping every possible nurse healthy has got to be top priority. I'm sure EMS is a close second.

[JonM]

My wife and I are both now signed up to receive the vaccine through work. My daughter is signed up to receive it through the EMS. What's odd is that hospital workers in PA are slated to get it before first responders. Never mind the fact that EMS workers are stuck inside of a tiny ambulance with COVID patients with nothing between them and the virus besides an N95 and goggles.

[Axel]

As th vaccine goes out to front line medical staff--thank you Diomedes for you and your wife's contribution to making this a reality

[Diomedes]

I can try! In general, younger people have more robust immune responses - faster ramp-up of antibody production, more antibodies, faster + more T cells. So a given vaccine dose, on average, is going to be more protective in younger people compared to older people.

[un2xs]

This evening NPR had a story about Moderna's COVID vaccine. The study of 30,000 people has it's efficacy at 94%. What caught my attention was that in older populations it was not as effective. Do you have any idea why? If so, can you explain it to a non-scientist?

[Axel]

Ooooh ... That title scares me. I don't care how scientific you are, don't declare victory too early and jinx the whole thing, dammit!

[un2xs]

This interesting article from The Atlantic showed up in my news feed today: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine...=pocket-newtab

Do you have any critic of the article, either plus or minus? As a non-scientist, it seemed an interesting article to me.

[Tarsun2]

could be lol
but most likely not.

our department was tested for the antibodies not that long ago to see if we had it early on. No luck.

[boarder2k7]

I really hope we figure out bacteriophages soon, they'll be such a game changer when we get that cracked.

[Archdogg]

A prehensile tail would be great for having a pod at the ready during a game.